17 ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS CHINA • 亚洲法律杂志-中国版 WWW.LEGALBUSINESSONLINE.COM/CHINA (Laos), “taking solid steps to build the firm’s overseas services network in South Asia and Southeast Asia.” Apart from regional shifts, some changes can also be seen in the specific locations chosen by Chinese firms for their overseas outfits. “In the Southeast Asian market, in addition to Singapore and Thailand, firms are also considering Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. In the European market, Chinese firms have begun to more closely look at Hungary, Poland, Serbia and other Central and Eastern European countries. Further, this year, more and more Chinese firms have visited the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, as well as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in Central Asia,” observes Cheng. As to the speed of overseas expansion, Cheng notes that “Chinese firms have not stopped building up their overseas presence, although they have become more cautious. In the first two years after the pandemic, everyone was more on the sidelines, but this year it is obvious that Chinese firms are accelerating overseas expansion.” Yang Jie, director of Wang Jing & GH Law Firm, has similarly felt this “acceleration.” Since 2020, the firm has opened four offices in Bangkok, Los Angeles, Sydney and Tokyo. “At present, all Chinese firms are speeding up international expansion through direct investment, alliance, cooperation and other forms, to set up new offices in Asia, North America, Europe and other regions to expand overseas presence,” says Yang. During this process, he says that Chinese firms have also become more flexible with the model of their overseas presence by successfully exploring new models such as brand licensing, partner participation in overseas office management, and overseas alliance. TALENT IS KEY Innovation of the models for overseas presence is also reflected in overseas office staffing. According to Cheng, an overseas office of a Chinese firm usually has three categories of employees. “The first category includes local employees holding citizenship and the lawyers’ license of the host country. The second category includes those of Chinese descent who have studied in the host country and are qualified to practice law there. In the past, these two categories formed the majority of the staffing of the overseas offices of Chinese firms.” Now, “we are exploring ways to beef up the third category, i.e., lawyers who are directly sent by a Chinese firm to its overseas offices. These lawyers enjoy the advantage of being more familiar with domestic client needs, service habits and management styles. They can work with local lawyers to better provide one-stop services for Chinese companies venturing overseas.” Cheng uses Tahota’s Bangkok office as an example. “We now have lawyers in Bangkok who are assigned there from the head office. Chinese companies have entered the second stage in their overseas expansion journey in which they will have more in-depth investment and operation overseas, and will send more Chinese staffs there. The lawyers we sent from the head office can better understand the thinking and business habits of this client group.” In fact, whether a firm has partners whose practice and philosophy are in line with its own to lead the local markets plays an important role in the decisionmaking process of Chinese firms opening offices overseas. “Having talents is the hard truth. Only with the right team can we open offices in new places,” admits Li. Sometimes such talents come from overseas markets, but more often, they need to come from within. Take DeHeng’s new offices in Laos, Tokyo and Seoul as examples. “We are able to set up these offices because there are several colleagues in the DeHeng network who are willing to be sent there and work bilingually. We have two colleagues who have studied and worked in Japan and South Korea for many years. They are the ones who took the lead in setting up the Tokyo and Seoul offices. The same is true for Laos where we have two colleagues who are willing to be sent from Beijing and Nanning to lead local business development there.” As Chinese companies deepen overseas operations, Li has also observed the importance of staffing different types of MP ROUNDTABLE “In the past, the overseas offices mainly served Chinese companies’needs for investing overseas and establishing local joint ventures. Now, with local offices, we can continue to serve the local operations of Chinese companies, focusing on compliance and dispute resolution.” — Frank Li, DeHeng Law Offices “过去，境外办公室以服务中国企业 海外投资、设立当地合资企业等为主； 有了境外办公室后，我们可以持续服 务于中国企业落地后的当地经营，内 容以合规、争议解决为主。” — 李忠，德恒律师事务所
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